public MRI waiting lists, by paying $4,500 to cover their scan and two others.

“The team uses an average of about six MRIs a year, and they are either scheduled where there have been cancellations, or after regular hours, which stretch from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays and until 3 p.m. weekends, Mr. Carney said. The extra money, meanwhile, allows the system to fund more scans after hours that can be offered to patients on the waiting list. Emergency cases get MRIs immediately and other patients queue for two days to three months depending on the urgency…”

Has this provoked outrage? Public demonstrations? Has the new statue of Tommy Douglas in Weyburn toppled over?

Hardly. According to Bill Carney, spokesman for the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region:.

“The Riders are a special case in Saskatchewan. We have the Rider nation,” he said “There seems to be acceptance by the public.”

Wow. Talk about a double standard. Of course, the North Koreans probably used the same rationale to justify years of timely medical care for Kim Jong-il (hey, he is a national icon too!) Maybe Cuba used it when treating Fidel Castro’s various ailments. That is, until that country allowed a measure of private health care, leaving Canada and North Korea as the sole remaining countries with state monopoly health care systems.

The Roughriders scenario illustrates everything that is wrong about the Canadian arrangement, and every reason to allow parallel private delivery. Some patients, including sports figures, whose livelihood depends on being in top physical condition, cannot wait for MRIs, and have the means and desire to pay for them. (Less wealthy or “urgent” patients would also have access, were they allowed to purchase private health insurance.) The extra money the Rough Riders currently pay increases access for other patients in the public system. Should more patients be allowed to go private, with or without paying “extra” fees, they would remove themselves from the public waiting lists, thereby reducing wait times for everyone.

The Rough Riders aren’t the only group in Saskatchewan that gets speedier treatment. If a person is injured on the job, and treatment is covered by Workers’ Compensation, he or she also moves closer to the front of the line. This is the case in other provinces as well. In other words, Canada already has “two-tier” health care – you just have to belong to the right category of sick people to access it.

The Rough Riders’ story comes one day after former prime minister Brian Mulroney

, which is tied to the maintenance of provincial public payer systems. Mr. Bernier believes replacing this funding with tax points would encourage experimentation with different means of delivery, including private care.

It was Saskatchewan, of course, which saw its provincial experimentation go “national” when Ottawa passed the Medical Care Act in 1966. At the time, this was seen as a step forward, a means to ensure no Canadian would do without health care for financial reasons. But Medicare has suffered the predictable consequences of any monopoly, single-payer system: inefficiencies, spiralling costs, and rationing.

, between 1993 and 2009, Canadians spent 47 per cent more on health care per person while wait times went up 73 per cent.

No one is calling for the public health care system to be abolished. There will always be patients who cannot afford to pay for their own care, and a compassionate society will not abandon the sick. But a compassionate society will also not let its citizens languish on waiting lists or deny them the right to spend their own money on care if they choose to do so. European nations have long known this, and strike a balance between the two systems through various means, such as compulsory health insurance, user fees, and the option of private hospitals and clinics.

It is high time for our political leaders to put the issue of health care back in the spotlight – but this time, to make some decisive changes. All Canadians should have the same rights as a football player, or an injured worker. All Canadians deserve choice in health care.

Almost Done!

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